Force majeure does not apply to the rescheduling of the GFF extraordinary congress

Dear Editor,

Last Friday, members of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) received a notice for what was termed the “rescheduling of the extraordinary congress”. In that notice, the federation’s General Secretary informed members that the organization’s inability to host a constitutionally mandated meeting within the constitutionally prescribed time, to present the 2016 financial statements was a result of “Force Majeure”.

I did a google search of the term to seek some clarity and was informed that the term is used in legal circles and to apply to situations where an “act of god” (for example, a natural disaster) caused the terms of a legal instrument to be breached. I am not aware of any earthquake, hurricane or other such natural disaster afflicting Guyana as of recent.

If the GFF is going to invoke force majeure as justification for delaying constitutionally required timelines, then why even bother with the constitution? The executive committee can just ignore all required dates and just say that force majeure applies. This amounts to trampling on the rights of the organization and its members, who surprisingly have remained silent, if not complicit, in condoning this unjust course of action by the GFF management committee.

I’m still awaiting responses to my previous questions of what Richard Groden’s role is at the GFF, and why there has been no presentation of the 2016 financial report (force majeure is an unconvincingly bankrupt and corrupt argument). Hopefully your sports’ reporters could do some investigative journalism and provide the public with some answers. Yours faithfully, Chamine Lovell